This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Pluto
The "first name" and "last name" fields of the Apache Pluto 3.1.0 MVCBean JSP portlet maven archetype are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. (2022-01-06, CVE-2021-36739)
The input fields in the JSP version of the Apache Pluto Applicant MVCBean CDI portlet are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. Users should migrate to version 3.1.1 of the applicant-mvcbean-cdi-jsp-portlet.war artifact (2022-01-06, CVE-2021-36738)
The input fields of the Apache Pluto UrlTestPortlet are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. Users should migrate to version 3.1.1 of the v3-demo-portlet.war artifact (2022-01-06, CVE-2021-36737)
The input fields of the Apache Pluto "Chat Room" demo portlet 3.0.0 and 3.0.1 are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. Mitigation: * Uninstall the ChatRoomDemo war file - or - * migrate to version 3.1.0 of the chat-room-demo war file (2019-04-26, CVE-2019-0186)
Why Cross-site Scripting can be dangerous
Cross site scripting is an attack where a web page executes code that is injected by an adversary. It usually appears, when users input is presented. This attack can be used to impersonate a user, take over control of the session, or even steal API keys.
The attack can be executed e.g. when you application injects the request parameter directly into the HTML code of the page returned to the user:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=Transaction+Complete
what results in:
<span>Confirmation: Transaction Complete</span>
In that case the message can be modified to become a valid Javascript code, e.g.:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=<script>dangerous javascript code here</script>
and it will be executed locally by the user's browser with full access to the user's personal application/browser data:
<span>Confirmation: <script>dangerous javascript code here</script></span>